Chorus. The scene is laid in Persia, and the story is taken from Quintus Curtius, lib. 6, Justin, and from the life of Alexander in Plutarch.

The following speech of Philotas in defence of his honour, is taken from Act iv, Sc. 2.

Phi. My lord, you far mistake mee if you deeme

I plead for life, that poore weake blast of breath,
From which so oft I ran with light esteeme
And so well haue acquainted mee with death,
No, no, my Lords, it is not that I feare,
It is mine honor that I seeke to cleare.
And which if my disgraced cause would let
The language of my hart be vnderstood,

Is all which I haue euer sought to get

And which (o leaue mee now) and take my bloud.
Let not your enuy go beyond the bound
Of what you seeke:-my life stands in your way
That is your ayme, take it, and do not wounde

My reputation with that wrong I pray.

If I must needes be made the sacrifice

Of enuy, and that no oblation will,

The wrath of Kings but onely bloud suffice

Yet let me haue something left that is not ill.

Is there no way to get vnto our liues

But first to haue our honour ouerthrowne?
Alas! though grace of Kings all greatnesse giues

It cannot giue us vertue that's our owne

Though all be theirs our harts and hands can do
Yet that by which we doe is onely ours:
The trophies that our blood erects vnto
Their memory to glorifie their powres
Let them inioy:-yet onely to haue done
Worthy of grace, let not that be vndone.
Let that high swelling riuer of their fame

Leaue humble streames that feed them yet their name.

O my deare father, didst thou bring that spirit
Those hands of vallour that so much haue done
In this great worke of Asia, this to merit

By dooing worthily to be vndone?

And hast thou made this purchase of thy sword

To get so great an Empire for thy Lord
And so disgrac'd a graue for thee and thine,
T'extinguish by thy seruice all thy line.

One of thy sonnes by being too valourous
But fiue daies since, yet o well, lost his breath
Thy deare Nicanor th' halfe arch of thy house,
And here now the other at the barr of death
Stands ouercharg'd with wrath in far worse case
And is to be confounded with disgrace.

Thy selfe must give th' acquitance of thy blood
For others debts to whom thou hast done goed.
Which if they would a little time afford
Death would haue taken it without a sword.
Such the rewards of great imployments are
Hate kills in peace, whom fortune spares in war.
And this is that high grace of Kings we seeke,
Whose fauour, and whose wrath consumes alike.

See

Philotas was reprinted in 1607, again in 1611, and in 1623, 4to. Langbaine's Dram. Poets, p. 102; Collier's Hist. Dram. Poet., vol. iii. p. 253; Jones's Biogr. Dram., vol. iii, p. 146; and Retrosp. Rev., vol. viii. p. 229. It sold in Reed's sale, No. 6781, for 1l. 48.; Heber's ditto, pt. viii. No. 608, 1l. 48.; Strettell's ditto, with the Small Poems, No. 449, 2l. 2s.; and Sir F. Freeling's ditto, No. 358, 1. 118.

Collation: Title A 3. Sig. A to F 6, in eights. A 1 and 2 are blank leaves. Bound in Yellow Morocco, gilt leaves.

The Freeling copy.

DANIEL, (SAMUEL.) - Certaine small Workes heretofore divulged by Samuel Daniel one of the Groomes of the Queenes Maiesties priuie Chamber, and now againe by him corrected and augmented.

Etas prima canat veneres postrema tumultus.

At London Printed by I. W. for Simon Waterson. 1607. Sm. 8vo, pp. 320.

On the reverse of the title is a list of the Poems contained in this edition, viz: "The tragedy of Cleopatra, newly altered;" "Philotas;" "The Queenes Arcadia ;" "Octavia ;" "Rosamond;" "Musophilus ;" and "A Funeral Poeme vpon the Death of the late Earle of Devonshire." these have separate title-pages excepting the last. This edition is exceedingly rare and difficult to meet with in a complete state. It is much

All

smaller in size, and varies considerably in its contents and matter from that of 1605. Daniel was an exceedingly sensitive person, and diffident of his own powers. He was ambitious of fame, and painfully alive to his reputation in the world, but saw that reputation gradually declining, and as we have before shown, confessed himself in his disappointed feelings, that he had outlived his hopes and expectations.

But yeeres hath done this wrong,

To make me write too much, and liue too long.

Yet still he had a constant belief that his fame would ultimately triumph, and his works be valued by posterity. And what renders this impression highly valuable is an interesting poetical address "To the Reader," prefixed to the work, which is not inserted in the later editions, and from which, relating as it does, to Daniel's own sentiments respecting the disappointments he had met with, and his ultimate conviction that his works would live, and "be read, so long as men speake English, and verse and vertue shall be in request," we are induced to transcribe a portion:

Behold once more with serious labor here

Haue I refurnisht out this little frame,

Repair'd some parts defectiue here and there,

And passages new added to the same,

Some rooms inlarg'd, made some less than they were

Like to the curious builder who this yeare

Puls downe, and alters what he did the last,

As if the thing in doing were more deere

Then being done;-and nothing like thats past.

For that we euer make the latter day
The scholler of the former, and we find
Something is still amisse that must delay
Our busines, and leaue work for vs behinde.
As if there were no saboath of the minde
And howsoeuer be it well or ill

What I haue done, it is mine owne:-I may
Do whatsoeuer there withall I will.

I may pull downe, raise, and re-edifie,

It is the building of my life, the fee

Of Nature, all th' inheritance that I

Shall leaue to those which must come after me.

And all the care I haue is but to see

These lodgings of m' affections neatly drest

Wherein so many noble friends there be

Whose memories with mine must therin rest.

VOL. III. PART I.

H

And glad I am, that I haue liu'd to see
This edifice renew'd, who doo but long
To liue t' amend. For man is a tree

That hath his fruite late ripe, and it is long
Before he come t' his taste; there doth belong
So much t' experience, and so infinite

The faces of things are, as hardly we
Discerne, which lookes the likest vnto right.

*

And howsoeuer here detraction may
Disvalew this my labour, yet I know
There wil be foūd therin, that which wil pay
The reckoning for the errors which I owe;
And likewise will sufficiently allow
T'an vndistasted iudgement fit delight.
And let presumptuous selfe-opinion say
The worst it can, I know I shall haue right.
I know I shal be read, among the rest
So long as men speake English, and so long
As verse and vertue shal be in request,
Or grace to honest industry belong :
And England, since I vse thy present tongue,
Thy forme of speech, thou must be my defece
If to new eares, it seemes not well exprest,
For though I hold not accent, I hold sence.

And would to God that nothing faulty were

But only that poore accent in my verse,

Or that I could all other reck'nings cleere

Wherwith my heart stands charg'd; or might reuerse

The errors of my iudgment passed here,

Or else where, in my bookes, and vnrehearse
What I haue vainely said, or haue addrest
Vnto neglect mistaken in the rest.
Which I do hope to liue yet to retract,
And craue that England neuer wil take note
That it was mine. I'le disavow mine act,
And wish it may for euer be forgot:
I trust the world will not of me exact
Against my will, that hath all els I wrote,
I will aske nothing therein for my paine,
But onely to haue in, mine owne againe.

The Poems are not placed in the order in which they are enumerated on the back of the title, but "The Tragedie of Philotas" occurs first; then "Octavia;" "Cleopatra ;" "Rosamond;" "Musophilus;" "The Queenes Arcadia ;" and "The Funeral Poeme." The signatures run throughout,

but the paging only commences with the Epistle of "Octavia." The whole edition is in smaller type than the impression of 1605, and contains three Poems not in that. Mr. Heber says, his "copy (now complete) was made up of two volumes, bound separately, and picked up at different times. In fact it is very difficult to meet with entire." See Bibl. Heber., pt. iv. No. 471, 1l. 58. But his copy as there described was not complete, as it appears to have wanted "Musophilus," "The Queenes Arcadia,” and “The Funeral Poeme." There was another edition of "The Tragedie of Philotas," published in the same year, printed by Melah. Bradwood, for Edw. Blount. 1607. There was a later edition of the "Certaine Small Workes," published in 1611, 12mo. Printed by I. L. for Simon Waterson, which we have not seen, but which is mentioned by Mr. Heber, Bibl. Heber., pt. iv. No. 474, as being also extremely rare. А сору of this impression is priced in the Bibl. Ang. Poet., No. 193, at 57. 58. The present copy of the edition of 1607 is supposed to be unique. Collation: Sig. T, eight leaves. B to VS in eights. pp. 320. In Brown Calf, marbled edges.

DANIEL, (SAMUEL.) — A Funerall Poeme vppon the Death of the

late noble Earle of Deuonshyre. No printer's name, place, or date. 4to, pp. 24.

It was

We are not aware that any other edition than the present of this Poem by Daniel, was published separately from the rest of his works. probably printed about 1606 or 1607, as the death of the nobleman commemorated in it occurred in 1606. This was Charles Blount, son of James, the sixth Lord Mountjoy, who was created by James I. in 1603, Earl of Devonshire, and made a Knight of the Garter. This brave and accomplished nobleman, an ornament of the courts of Elizabeth and James, and the restorer of the fortunes of his impoverished house, was chiefly known for his romantic and unfortunate connection with Penelope, the wife of Robert, Lord Rich, and sister to the Earl of Essex, bis first and earliest affection, whom he afterwards married, but he did not long survive his un